I bought a brand new upper (.223/5.56) from a gun show. No manufacturer markings anywhere on it. The seller claimed it was NIB/never fired. Now I tried to shoot with it and there's a problem.

The cartridge won't go into full battery. I chamber a round and its still about 1/4" out of battery. The bullet then seats very tightly inside the gun and requires that the charging handle be tapped with a mallet to get the cartridge to extract. There are scratches on the bullet (not the case) when this occurs.

Never ran into this problem before. Any suggestions/ideas on remedying the issue?

Ok so I decided to "ram" the round into battery. After chambering it I took the upper off and gave the BCG a good rap with a rubber mallet.

As expected the whole thing snapped into battery. I then extracted it (took several raps to the charging handle with the mallet) and examined the cartridge.

There were some markings on the bullet itself however I believe that these marks came from being stripped from the magazine. I now notice that there are obvious marks on the casing itself. I've attached a photo of the cartridge itself after I managed to extract it.

Note the markings on the rim of the case and around the shoulder of the cartridge... Is the chamber too tight? This is a Federal Brass Eagle brand .223, not 5.56.

How do I go about fixing this now?

Btw, there is no damage to the actual chamber, BCG or charging handle after this.

__________________
NRA Life Member (2003)
USN Retired
I think that one of the notions common to the anti-gunner is the idea that being a victim is 'noble'; as if it is better to be noble in your suffering than disruptive in your own defense.

I had a 16" Oly Arms upper that had a tight chamber. It would chamber
some brands, but not others. Had a gunsmith give it a quick pass with
a chambering reamer---now it eats anything. It happens--tools wear out,
stuff gets manufactured at high speed and low cost, and sometimes
the quality control department steps out for a cup of coffee.

opps. i missed where he forced a round into the chamber.... with a mallet.... why would you do this??? floating firing pin.... makes tons of sence. I wouldnt do it again as you might not get that lucky again...

You cannot force a 5.56X45 NATO cartridge into a 5.45X39 chamber, there is almost 1/4" of difference from the case head to the shoulder and the forces required would be fantastic. The 1/4" he is seeing when the bolt does not go into battery is the distance the bolt head has to travel into the bolt carrier in order to cam the lugs into the barrel extension.

It does sound like the chamber is too tight. Find a gunsmith that has the appropriate reamer and headspace gauges and have the chamber touched up.

First I apologize as I failed to mention that I did not force the round to chamber with the firing pin in the bolt. Its easy enough to take out and no I don't consider myself a very lucky guy so I never leave things up to luck.

Second my LGS confirmed that it was NOT chambered for 5.45x39 bit rather just a poorly made barrel for .223. I'm going to have them fix the problem and thus ends this quandary.

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